Price Book & Coupons & Spread Sheets

I first learned about keeping a price book when I read one of the Tightwad Gazette Newsletters back in the 90's.

Have you ever heard of a price book?

Mine was a small notebook.  In it, I listed at the top of the page the items I usually bought.  Underneath, I listed the name of the store and the rock bottom lowest price I had ever found for that item.

Each Sunday and Wednesday, when the sale fliers came out, I would comb through the ads, looking for the loss leaders.  When I found something that was that rock bottom price or lower, I would go out and stock up on that item.  If the item wasn't on the shelves at the store, I would request a rain check for that item at that price, and then I'd send my husband to stop in on his way home from work so that he could also pick up a rain check, and then I'd be able to go back later, and pick up more of that item at that sale price, once the sale was over.

I love my price book, but over the last year or so, food inflation has hit so hard that it I can no longer match my lowest price. 

I've begun calculating the cost of an item per ounce, (due to shrinking package sizes), and now am looking for the lowest price per ounce.  A little more work involved, but it's worth it for the savings.

Love my Coupons!

I am a couponer.  I love nothing more than to use coupons on top of sales and get a fantastic deal. 

I only buy items I know that we will use, items from my regular list.

I keep my coupons organized in a check file I picked up at an office supply store.  It's a little larger than a 3 x 5 card.  I have the sections organized by item (canned, baking, personal hygiene, etc.)  Within each divider, I cut up more dividers so that everything is sorted out a little bit more.  For example, in the hygiene section, I have dividers for shampoo, soap, deodorant, feminine hygiene, toothpaste, floss, and toothbrushes.  (Can you see why I'm a librarian?  That compulsive need to organize stuff?)

Once a month, I go through the coupon file and throw out any expired coupons so they don't clutter up my file.

Shopping With a List

It's boring, but it's what I do.  I have a list of what I'm going to buy at the grocery store.  I do comb through the sales to see if there is anything that we need, and I fill in those holes first.  I attempt to always keep certain items in my cupboard at all times.  If anything that I normally keep goes on sale, I will pick it up. 

By keeping a list, I can keep my impulse buys down to a minimum.  Nothing worse than going into the store without a plan.

Spreadsheets

This is a new foray for me.  I know how to use spread sheets, and have used them extensively at work.  I've never used one for home expenses before.  I've always kept our budget in a black and white composition notebook, and I've never been as good as I should be at writing down our expenses.  I do keep a mental balance of what the final total in our checking account should look like, but I really do need to do a better job.

I'm approaching this as a financial analysis.

We have one credit card that has a $1,500 balance on it, and I want to get that paid off before the end of the year.  I'm hoping that by tracking spending more closely, I can "find" money and get that balance paid off quickly.

It's the end of the month, so our bills are coming in.  I've got categories across the top for the month of the year, and then down the side, I'm listing the expenses.  Beginning in November, I'm going to track where every dollar goes. 

This is going to be an eye opening experience.  I think I'm good at keeping track of our expenses, but somehow, I don't think I'm doing as good of a job as I should be.  If I were, we wouldn't have a $1500 balance on the credit card, would we? 

Depending upon how into this whole spreadsheet thing I get, I may very well transfer my price book over from the little spiral notebook that is falling apart to the computer. 

So, how do you keep track of what you spend and where you spend it?